Habits
(Originally posted on September 8, 2015)
Habits are hard.
I want to create a habit of writing every day, which is one of the main reasons I started this site. I want to be the type of person that takes some time every day to practice writing. This means that I need to create a habit.
So what is a habit? Our good friend the dictionary tells us a habit is: “a settled or regular tendency or practice, especially one that is hard to give up.” Let’s break that down. “settled or regular”. Since there is no specified period, that means we determine how often regular is. It could be every day. It could mean every year. I guess I can say that I have a habit of celebrating Christmas every year. Cool!
“tendency or practice”. That’s straightforward. A habit is something you do. An action. An interesting thing to note is the word tendency. It sounds like you don’t have to always do something. You can just have a strong tendency towards something, and that constitutes a habit as long as it’s regular. I guess I could say I have a habit of running. I try to go at least 3 times a week. I have a regular tendency towards that, but that doesn’t mean I always go that often. Sometimes life gets in the way and I miss a time or two, but I always get right back into the rhythm and go again. It’s to the point where I expect myself to go, and my body just wakes up expecting to run on certain days.
The final part is “especially one that is hard to give up.” This means that while a regular tendency still constitutes a habit, the more standard definition is something that sticks. Something that becomes ingrained. Something that is easier to do than not to do. A habit is something that becomes a part of who you are, inseparable from everything else that makes up you. That seems to be the ultimate goal in creating a habit. Starting (or stopping) a practice that becomes part of who you are. Something so regular that you can say “I am a person who does X”.
So go forth and become a person who does X. Keep on working at it. You can do it. Try to make your habit a part of who you are. And remember, lasting change takes a while, so give yourself some slack and realize it’s ok if you don’t get it right away. Just keep swimming :)
Take care!
